Red Effect
by boardnkt
Summary: When the Normandy crash-lands on an unknown planet after the activation of Crucible, the Normandy's crew finds out they're not alone... Setting: Post Destroy-ending Mass Effect 3/Between Seasons 10 & 11
1. Chapter 1

"All fleets: the Crucible is armed. Disengage and head to the rendezvous point." Hackett's voice ordered.

Two years and some change before an order like that, Joker might have actually obeyed the Systems Alliance's most decorated and respected general, but the memories of Shepard being spaced right before eyes were still raw enough to leave him drenched in sweat after night terrors. "Guess again, sir," Joker muttered under his breath as his arms continued their frantic dance of piloting the Normandy in the midst of the unchecked Reaper invasion of Earth. When he unexpectedly felt a hand on his right shoulder, his arm automatically swung back and pushed away Javik's hand, but not before something flashed across his mind-

"_-Joker," Shepard begins calmly as the Normandy is literally breaking up around them-_

-_The hell? _Joker thought as he broke contact with Javik. Momentarily reminded of the Prothean's ability to access other's experiences through touch, Joker silently prayed that Javik hadn't witnessed his flashback, but Javik's momentary recoiled suggested otherwise. His mind and body instinctively returned to keeping the Normandy airborne as Hackett continued to give orders-

"I repeat, disengage and get the hell out of there!" Joker felt the Prothean's three-fingered hand rest upon shoulder again, but instead of swinging back again, more memories of the Normandy SR-1's last minutes came rushing to the forefront of his mind and brought his arms to a screeching halt as Javik's voice and Joker's memories blurred together-

"There is no choice-" Javik began-

…"_we have to get out of here," she orders as all occupied evac shuttle jettison themselves away from the Normandy, which is burning up and set for a collision course with an unknown planet-_

"_No," he answers, almost pleading with her-_

"-we-"

"_I won't…"_

"-must-"

"…_abandon…"_

"-go."

"…_the Normandy…"_

"Now."

"_I can still save her."_

_Shepard forces what she can of her upper body between him his console. _"_The Normandy's dead-" she snaps-_

_Just like us if we don't get the hell out of here, _he finishes as the flashback ends. Except it's not Shepard practically losing her shit beside him, it's a battle-hardened Prothean gently reminding to him to heed Hackett's orders to save not her-

_-Her usual authoritative, commanding tone vanishes and becomes something more…unsteady. "No matter what happens here…you know I love you." Her hand immediately goes to the scarred side of the turian face, and Garrus reaches for it with the arm not around Vega. "I always will-"_

Joker shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the memory of what should have been a private conversation between lovers, not a rushed exchange in the middle of a battle. He looked down at his clenched fist and debated taking a swing at Javik, because he was reasonably sure Prohty the Prothean was about to clamp down on his right forearm and yank him out of seat soon, but no, more memories-

"_Shepard, I…" He leans into her hand and covers with his own, her green eyes locked onto his rare turian blues, "…love you too," he finishes as she steps away, but doesn't break eye contact or release his grip on her._

_Once more, the Reaper stares down the Normandy and makes it's terrifyingly familiar sound of warming up it's main weapon. "GO!" she orders as she turns and continues to sprints towards the beam-_

_Do not make the same mistake twice, Joker, _Javik's mind seemed to whisper as he dropped his arm from his shoulder, and the surge of foreign memories receded until Joker was left alone with his.

There and then, the real reason for Shepard's evac order dawned on Joker as Garrus' words to Shepard came back to him: _Humans want to save everyone. _Somewhere along their journey, Shepard figured that this pertained to the entirety of the Normandy

"Damn it."

Hating himself and everything that had brought him to this point, he reluctantly lifted his arm to the FTL controls and dragged them to the right. As he did so, he looked out at the crucible on the Normandy's starboard side.

_I'm sorry, Commander, _he pleaded as the Crucible shrank into the distance.

_I'm sorry._

_Always knew that damn Mako would be the end of me, _Garrus thought as Vega and Cortez half-dragged, half-carried him across the shuttle bay and towards the elevator where an anxious Dr. Chakwas stood waiting. Hell, how many hours had he spent repairing and recalibrating the one on the Normandy after Shepard's multiple counts of vehicular homicide against geth? (Granted, he'd been more afraid of her tendency to drive helter-skelter over anything and everything, but eventually he'd learned just to hold for dear life as soon as they hit dirt, asteroid, or unsuspecting alien life form.)

_Don't kid yourself, Vakarian. You needed that tank to distract you from those other…thoughts…that took up residence in your mind during your first tour with Shepard…speaking of which, where'd she go?_

"Hey Scars, you still with us?" Vega asked as they reached the elevator.

"Unfortunately," Garrus mumbled as the doctor flashed a light in his non-visored eye. Garrus turned his head away and saw Chakwas swiftly execute the same test on Vega.

"His pupils are bit sluggish…goodness, Garrus, what hit you?"

"M-35 Mako, ma'am," Vega answered, "Damn near crushed us first, then exploded…"

_It exploded? Why don't I remember that?_

"…the commander came back to check on us…"

_She turned back?_

"…and when she saw Scars, that's when she ordered Joker to come pick us up before she continued on..."

_WE LEFT HER BEHIND? _Garrus reached out to the two elevator panels in front of him. _Whose bright idea was it to put two of these things right next to each other?_ He tried to hit the one on the left, but all he hit was air. _The hell?_ He reached out again, this time aiming for the one on the right…and missed.

"Keep him still, Mr. Vega," Chakwas instructed as she tapped at her omni-tool and waved it over Garrus' head. "I suspect he's experienced a rather severe concussion that I'd like to take another-bloody hell," she muttered. "Irregular breathing, slow rate, increasing blood pressure…"

"Memory loss, confusion…" Cortez added causally as Garrus made a third attempt to change the direction of the elevator. _Missed again? Seriously, what's wrong with this elevator, and why don't these three do something about it?_

"How bad is he, doc?" James asked. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chakwas mouth something, and a quick consult of his visor's vitals readout didn't look good either, but he'd been damned if he was going to let something like a little concussion prevent him from returning to the fight…

"I'm fit for duty," Garrus grunted through his dizziness. "Come on, Jimmy," he continued as he began to drag his reluctant supports towards the doors, "She can't do this alone." Just as he reached the door, the elevator finally came to stop and the door retracted. With his head now spinning, his stomach churning, and his vision becoming more and more hazy, Garrus jerked himself free and stumbled forward right into-

_Ash? _Caught off guard at the sight of an unexpected crewmember, Garrus tried to sidestep her and go-_where?_,but physics, blood loss, and slowed reflexes combined and sent the pair of them slamming into the Normandy's memorial wall, with Garrus' head striking the wall first and knocking him backwards down to the floor…and for once, staying still with his eyes closed for a few moments didn't feel like such a bad idea-

_Ashley Williams-_

"James? What the hell happened to you two out there?"

_-when the pair of them hadn't been protecting Shepard's six on the ground during their Saren-tracking days, he spent his off-hours working on the Mako-_

"Scars here caught the worst of the explosion-"

_-while she shot him hostile glares from across the room, which eventually cumulated in her directly questioning Shepard's decsions-_

A barely audible exhale from someone. "She didn't want another Virimire…damn it, Commander…" Ash sighed

_-to allow "the aliens" (specifically, him and Wrex) access to the Normandy's systems-_

"-failure if we don't get him to the med bay to relieve-"

_-he could still recall how he'd held his breath in an attempt to overhear Shepard answer:_

"_I can see where your concerns are coming from, Williams. But this is a multicultural mission. You're going to have to work with aliens, like or not."_

_Ashley glances at him at the other side of the room, but with what looks like less hostility. He figures that she knows he's overheard most of this conversation, so he quickly looks back down at his console in an attempt to make his eavesdropping less obvious, which, apparently, is just as frowned upon in human culture as it is with turians. "It won't be a problem, Commander," she answers respectfully. "You say "jump," I say "How high?" You ask me to kiss a turian-"_

_Garrus snaps his head up again. Surely she didn't just say-_

"_-I'll ask which cheek."_

_Yes. Yes she did. He involuntary flicks his mandibles at her while he focuses on keeping his cool, and the last thing he needs to do right now is make eye contact with Wrex, who may or may not know Garrus' true feelings about the love triangle of the upper decks…not that it's any of his business, the commander is perfectly entitled to relieve stress however she pleases-_

"_I don't think kissing turians will be necessary." The commander's tone is all business, her tone devoid of all humor._

"_You never know, Commander," Ashley finishes causal raise of her eyebrows. Now he knows she added that last part this to, as the humans say, "screw with him."_

_The commander hesitates for just a moment before answering, "Dismissed…Chief."_

"_Ma'am," Ashley responds. With their conversation complete, the gunnery chief leans back on her weapons bench and crosses her arms across her chest while the commander does an about-face and briskly makes her way toward the elevator with a acknowledging nod towards Wrex and Garrus himself. Both return the the nod, but everyone waits until the elevator returns to the second floor before they anything further about what's transpired, and even then, it's a few second of the turian glaring at the krogan, who's trying to conceal that toothy krogan shit-eating grin of his-_

"_Hey Vakarian," Ashley calls from across the room, "If you're not too busy pretending to fix the Mako, I could use some help fixing Shepard's-"_

_Shepard…_ At the memory of her name, the last bit of adrenaline left in his system forced him to open his eyes and return to the present, and when he did, he felt himself floating above the ground and staring at his legs, to which he reacted by thrashing about-

"-shit, I think he's coming around again-" Vega cursed from above him.

Garrus momentarily paused and looked up in the direction of Vega's voice head up and quickly realized what was going on: Vega and Ashley had been carrying his top half while Cortez carried his legs. With a growl at Cortez, Garrus quickly tried to curl himself up in a ball (Cortez responded by immediately releasing his grip) and attempting to stand up on his own…which required practically crawling up a wall to support himself, but he fairly sure that was just a minor detail-

"Easy there, Garrus…" Ash said from behind him. "You're hurt. We're just trying to help you."

"I'm fine," Garrus gasped again, his head pounding as he turned and took a few unsteady steps while using the wall for support.

"_Bullshit_," Vega responded as he grabbed hold of Garrus' shoulders and slammed him up against the wall hard enough to deform his crest and leaving what he suspected was a turian-shaped imprint in the wall.

Garrus reflexively narrowed his browplates, flicked his mandibles, and glared at the idiot human who'd invaded the now stim-fueled turian's personal space. "Let. Me. Go," he growled as he bared his teeth and struggled against Vega's unnaturally strong grip…or maybe he'd never really noticed it before…

"No can do, Scars," Vega answered as Garrus felt a sudden, sharp prick and burning sensation in his neck. He automatically tried to reach up and grab it, but Ashley and Cortez each grabbed an arm and pinned them back against the wall with the rest of him. _The hell?_

"It would be very unwise of you to turn your head right now, Mr. Vakarian," Dr Karin Chakwas's voice commented from his side. Garrus heard the click of a needle sliding back into it's protective sheath and the distinct smell of dextro tranquilizer wafted under his nose.

_Stealth sedation attack by Chakwas. Can't say I ever saw that coming, _Garrus thought as the warm haziness began spreading through his brain and down his spine. He tried to struggle, but his body seemed utterly unresponsive to any commands. As his body relaxed, the other three humans released their grip while Vega and Ashley each took one of his arms and draped it over their shoulders to support him.

"You have about a minute before that takes full effect," she added as she turned around and headed back towards the med bay. "Lieutenant, I'll need you to remove his visor before I can proceed with his surgery."

"Yes, ma'am," Cortez and Vega answered in unison as the sound of her footsteps faded away.

"You…" he rasped heavily as Cortez came face to face with him, their foreheads inches away from each other. _You don't understand, _he wanted to say, but it was all he could do to not give himself over to the fog trying to overcome him. Damn it, didn't he understand? Hadn't he lost someone he loved in this war too?

"Yeah, yeah, you're pissed at all of us. Can't say I blame you," he answered, avoiding eye contact as his hands found and depressed the release button on the rear his visor, and the constantly scrolling text he'd become so accustomed too slid out of his field of vision, and for the first time in living memory, Garrus found himself _sans_ visor it in front of the crew…and once more, he felt nothing where he thought should have felt uncomfortable.

"But, Shepard…" he gasped once as he attempted to pull himself away from Vega again.

"Garrus…" Cortez answered as he gently gripped Garrus' head and turned it to face his, his blue eyes brimming with tears and his voice wavering just slightly less than Shepard's minutes ago, "Believe me, I know…and I'm… sorry."

Long ago, Garrus had learned that much could be gleaned from human by watching the area around the eyes, and in his brief remaining moments of consciousness, he saw something of his own pain reflected in his fellow crew mates expression.

_Shepard… _he thought as his mind finally slipped into the deep depths of unconsciousness.

"EDI, status report, and what the hell is going on out there?" Joker demanded as the Normandy's external as the external camera showed an image of said mass relay exploding.

"It appears that the activation of the Crucible has triggered some sort of energy release that is currently being transferred to the mass relays," EDI responded calmly.

"Yeah, I gathered that, but why the hell did the relay just explode?" he asked as a red energy released began expanding outward from the destroyed relay.

EDI hesitated. "I do not know, Jeff."

_And I don't think I want to, _Joker thought as he turned back to his console. "Well, we're not staying around to find out," he answered as he ignored the flashing red lights telling him he was pushing the engines past their recommended levels. "Divert all power to the engines, we're getting the hell out of here!"

"Jeff, the engines, electrical, and internal heat sinks systems are already-"

"I DON'T CARE, EDI," Joker snapped as sparks began flying and Jeff waved away the second warning that told him the engines were operating far beyond a safe capacity. He glanced up at the external camera. Despite traveling at faster-than-light speeds, the red energy wave was still hot on their their heels, and a giant had gash had opened up in it's center.

_Shit, _Joker thought as he forced himself to focus on managing the Normandy's quickly malfunction systems and not the sparks and flames burning behind because he'd finally pushed their battle-damaged electrical system. He switched to the external rear cameras again, which now revealed that not only had the gash in the center had gotten larger, but it was about to swallow the Normandy in it's center.

"Jeff, engines have reached critical failure-" EDI reported as the heat and pressure of the explosions began to rock him out of his seat. _Inertia dampener failure, _he thought.

_We're._

_Fucked-_

**Many thanks to the lovely professionaltsundere for agreeing to beta this insane little venture of mine!**


	2. Chapter 2

**As always, much love and good karma to my fabulous beta ****Professional Tsundere!**

**Chapter 2: When The Lights Go Out**

Alone and with nothing but a helmet-free view of the aging red giant star before him, former Freelance Agent Washington let out a contented sigh and took a moment to revel exactly in what he was right now: alone and with nothing but the view of a giant red star before him. Ever since he'd ended up with the Red and Blue simulation troopers, peaceful moments alone like these had become a rarity for him.

_With any luck, I'll have at least a few moments of peace and quiet before Caboose comes looking for me again, _Wash thought as he leaned back against the wall of the of the observation alcove.

Somewhere behind him, he could hear the dull clank of footsteps, and judging by the lack of bickering, rambling, or ranting, he could safely narrow down who it was, but he still glanced at the reflection in his visor to confirm that it was indeed Agent Carolina striding towards him, her own helmet nestled in the crook of her arm and her tomato-red bangs covering part of her face.

"Find out anything new?" Wash asked as he swung himself around to face her.

"From our rescuers?" She paused to set her helmet down next to Wash's. "Nothing that contradicts anything Epsilon's already dug up from their systems."

"And what has he discovered?" Wash asked with a expectant glance down at Carolina's helmet, where, sure enough, Epsilon's hologram flashed into view and looked up at the both of them.

"Well, when Carolina started asking about how they heard our distress signal, she got the feeling that they weren't being entirely truthful with her when they answered," he began as brought up a second hologram of scrolling zeros and ones. "They claim that they 'just happened'" -he continued with air quotes- "-to be in the area, but when I tried to access their computer systems, I found this-" he finished with a jerk of his head towards the scrolling code.

"-Encryption that he claims resembles the Project Freelancer code," Carolina finished.

Wash raised his eyebrows at Carolina, who answered him with a silent confirmatory nod. "Project Freelancer? I thought the Chairman confiscated all gear from the Mother of Invention during the investigation."

"Not all of it," Carolina answered. "Before Epsilon and I left, we learned that there were other Project Freelancer facilities still online, but the someone must've pre-programmed FILISS to delete all records of their locations if anyone besides the Director himself tried to enter."

"I've tried every key I could think of, but they're not working…and it's almost like they expected an AI to try and hack it, as it keeps trying to infect me with some sort of virus every time I think I've made a breakthrough-oh goddamnit, not again-" he cursed as his hologram disappeared from view and the scrolling code went blank.

"Wash and Carolina briefly exchanged concerns looks before Wash watched Carolina snatch up her helmet up and turned it so that the visor looked up at them. "Epsilon?" Carolina asked, her voice rising. "Epsilon, can you hear me?"

"Has this happened before?" Wash asked.

"Yes, but he's always been able-"

"-been able to beat it?" Epsilon answered as he reappeared. "Yeah, sorry about that, that attack took a little bit more processing power…think I'm okay now, though."

"You sure?" The panicked woman from moments before disappeared and was replaced by her usual confident demeanor.

"Positive."

Epsilon brought up the ship's schematics and highlighted a portion near the stern. "Got the codes to the cargo bay!"

"Any idea what's in there?" Carolina asked.

"Based on what I had to get through to crack these codes, something reeaaaaaally valuable? Can't seem to find any record of a inventory on the main computers…"

Carolina smiled. "You up for a little exploring?"

"Yup…but we're probably gonna need a little help from the others," Epsilon said as both he and Carolina turned to face him. Wash sighed, because after Epsilon and Carolina's outburst in the Red's hologram room, he knew damn well that they didn't feel comfortable asking them without the help of the Freelancer Agent who hadn't pointed a gun at Tucker.

_So much for my peace and quiet,_ Wash thought as he reached for his own helmet and slid it back over his head while he answered "Got a plan, boss?"

As the trio approached their current sleeping quarters, Church decided to take a break from trying to decrypt the rest of the ship's security codes so he could focus on forming a plan for infiltrating the cargo bay. Sure, he and Carolina could manage it with Carolina's camouflage abilities alone, but after the run-in with the virus, he didn't want to take any chances, not to mention he was still running checks on both his and Carolina's systems to ensure complete erasure of the virus.

"I'm fine, Epsilon," she muttered after his third full-systems check, which involved a reboot of her heads-up display and an armor lock-and-shutdown. (Wash had gone on ahead to try to talk the Reds and Blues into helping them get into the cargo bay.) _Seriously, there's nothing wrong with my armor, _she thought as he temporarily disabled her radio.

"Yeah, well I'll be the judge of that," he snapped back as her armor unlocked. "Whoever is behind this operation was either a Freelancer or worked closely with them…and honestly, I'm lucky I stopped whatever they made from spreading to the rest of your armor in the first place."

Carolina laughed. "You truly are my father's AI, aren't you?"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

A quiet chuckle from her. "You know exactly what it means," she answered as they stopped in the doorway. True to their roots, the team had already set up their "bases" in sides of the room, which had involved rearranging some furniture (Church guessed that Caboose's freakish strength had been utilized to knock over the lockers) to suit their preferences, and the result was a haphazard arrangement of tables, lockers, chairs and footlockers that definitely hadn't been there when they had first boarded the ship. The Reds (Donut, Simmons, Grif, and Sarge) were huddled around an open footlocker and talking amongst themselves, while Tucker, Doc, and Caboose appeared to be listening to Wash, who sounded like he was explaining the tail end of the plan.

"-so I'd really appreciate it if you guys could create a few distractions for them-oh, they're here," he finished as he caught sight of Carolina.

Church thought about making some sort of comment about her being just as unruly now as she was when she was a teenager, but decided against it and went with "Evening, assholes," as his greeting to the rest of his teammates.

"Evening, yourself, blue-tard," Sarge grunted without looking up "Simmons, you find what you need in there?"

"Just about, sir," Simmons answered as he pulled out what looked like a motherboard and cooling fans. "All I need now is the software."

"Speaking of software…" Grif said as he held up a two-liter bottle of Mountain Dew, "How much damage do you think this could do if I accidentally spilled it all over something?"

"Well, if you spray it all over the instruments, I'm sure it'll cause quite the-OOOF"

"DO NOT finish the sentence, Donut," Sarge snapped as he shoved a can of diesel fuel into Donut's chest, which momentarily silenced him.

Carolina was temporarily dumbstruck by the flurry of activity in front of her. _They're actually eager to help us? Why? Less than a week ago I nearly shot the green one for refusing to help us find the Director, but give them all the opportunity to sabotage an entire ship and they jump into action?_

_This is what we do best, Carolina: fuck shit up, _Church answered. He turned his attention to the Blues. "Alright, sounds like the Reds have their plan. Blue team, you gonna let the Reds show us up?"

"Eh…I was just gonna wing it and hit on the pilot," Tucker began with a shrug as he holstered his sword on his side.

"'Wing it?'" Carolina asked.

"Sounds like a plan," Church cut Carolina off before she could comment further. "Alright, that leaves Caboose, Wash, and Doc."

"Oh, oh, Doc and I were planning to blow-"

"DONUT!" Grif and Simmons interjected.

"-them away with a rousing-

"Seriously, enough with the the double entedres!" Simmons pleaded.

"-Broadway performance!" Doc finished, ignoring the protests and groans of the orange and maroon simulation troopers.

If he was a human, Church figured he'd be blinking and speechless like Carolina right now, but he'd actually heard Donut's rendition of "Today For You", and it would definitely keep anyone distracted long enough for him and Carolina to sneak past the door guards. Instead, he nodded, turned to Doc and said, "Doc, help him stretch. Last time he did that song he almost twisted his ankle during his tap-dance routine."

"You got it, Church!" Doc answered cheerfully as he went over to Donut's side, leaving Caboose and Wash.

"Wash?" Carolina asked.

"I'm going up to the engine room with the Reds. There's a weak point there that I can exploit," he answered as he reached over his shoulder and grabbed his rifle.

"What about me, Church?" a forlorn Caboose asked from the corner.

"Caboose, we saved the most important job just for you!"

_Epsilon… _Carolina began.

_We need his strength, Carolina…and honestly, he might really fuck things up for the others if I don't bring him with us, _Church replied. Carolina answered this with a derisive snort, but refrained from further comment. Proceeding as if nothing had happened, Church turned his attention back to the Reds and Blues. "Alright, assholes, we move in five. Sync?"

"Sync!" chorused the others, plus a delayed "Refrigerator," from Caboose.

"Hey Wash?" Tucker's voice crackled over the radio as Wash, Grif, and Simmons made their way towards the ship's navigation center. (Tucker had split off from them to head up to the bridge.)

"Yes, Tucker?" Wash answered.

"You mind telling us what Carolina's really up to?"

Wash sighed. "I already told you, Tucker: Carolina and Church think this ship stole Freelancer equipment-",

"-and my Grifshot!" Grif interjected, referring to the fact that Agent Maine's Covenant weapon had been confiscated from him the moment the group had set foot on the vessel.

"-but she needs access to the cargo bay in order to confirm it."

"Really? That's it?"

"Yes, Tucker, that's it."

A pause. "She's already killed the Director and the UNSC has already confiscated most of Project Freelancer property, not to mention they probably have a warrant out for your arrest. Why the hell should we care about a couple pieces of equipment?"

Another sigh, but the radio crackled to life before Wash could form an answer. "Actually, we didn't kill him, but we don't have time to go into that now." Church answered, "But to answer your question, we'd rather not see this equipment fall into the hands of space pirates, which is where I suspect it's going. So for once in your life, shut up and follow orders? Got it?"

Wash made a mental note to thank Epsilon later as he checked his HUD map for Tucker's location. "Tucker, you're right outside the bridge. You remember your plan?"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember my plan. Tucker out," he replied as his outgoing radio clicked off.

"Can't understand why he's cranky," Grif muttered. "All he has to do is stand around and bullshit with the bridge crew while we try to break stuff in restricted areas," he finished with a loud belch. "Also, he doesn't have to waste a perfectly good bottle of LiveWire Mountain Dew." He sighed forlornly as he took another sip.

"Do I even want to know how long you've been holding onto these bottle?" Wash asked.

"No. You don't," Simmons answered. Wash simply shook his head as he and the Reds stopped outside Navigation. "Here we are, Grif. You ready to commence Operation…?" Simmons added with a questioning glance at Wash.

Thankful that the simulation troopers couldn't see him rolling his eyes behind his helmet, Wash simply said the first two words that entered his mind. "Red Dawn," he replied with the tiniest bit of sarcasm. (Back in the 1980s, there was a movie where a bunch of high school kids who referred to themselves as the Wolverines had fought off a Russian invasion on American soil. Wash couldn't help but sometimes compare the simulation troopers to Wolverines, who always seemed to overcome the odds and succeed, even if their opponents were better trained.) "So named for the brilliant members of Red Team who helped make this mission possible."

"An operation named after us? What could possibly go wrong?" Sarge chirped cheerfully over the radio.

_Quite possibly everything, _Wash thought as he quickly made his way back towards Sarge.

"Everyone in position?" Church asked as he and Carolina peeked around the corner to visualize their targets: two guards posted outside of two large cargo bay doors.

"These boys won't know what hit them!" Donut replied as the faint jingle of sleigh bells and click of tap shoes could be heard in the background.

"So, what do I do again?" Caboose asked for what might have been the tenth time in ten minutes.

"You're going to hang out with us, silly!" Donut chirped cheerfully.

"You think you can jump to him in time?" Carolina asked as she clicked off her radio.

"Can you handle knocking out two guards without the assistance of an AI?" Church shot back.

Carolina smiled. "Watch me," she answered as she slipped around the corner.

"Alright, Donut, break a leg!" Church ordered. Seconds later, the click of tap shoes on metal echoed down the hall. Predictably, the guards looked up and saw their new visitors: Donut, who had artfully draped the Red team's flag around him to resemble some sort of toga and had modified the bottom of his boots to make them act and sound like tap shoe. (Doc was hidden out of sight just around the corner.) Caboose, on the other hand, was still in full armor and standing perfectly still, which, considering Caboose, was an accomplishment in itself.

_I still don't understand where these guys get this stuff from, _Carolina mused as she noiselessly closed the distance between her and the guards as Donut struck a pose and hit them with his opening line: "Today for you-"

_It's Donut. He's always had this thing for fashion design-_

"Tomorrow for me!" Carolina's eyes stayed focused on the guards, but Church was getting an eyeful of the beginning of Donut's song and dance routine.

_-plus, we all had to find ways to pass the time in Blood Gulch._

"It was my lucky day today on Avenue A-"

_Whatever, _she answered as came to a stop right behind the guards, who seemed transfixed at the oddly-clothed simulation troopers standing in front of them. _You ready? _

"-when a lady in limousine-"

_On your mark, _Church responded to as he set a target to Caboose's AI slot.

"MARK!" Carolina cried out as she drove her fist into the helmet of the first guard and Church simeltanously made his jump to Caboose's armor. Within milliseconds, he gained full control of Caboose's armor and directed a punch to the helmet of the second guard before Caboose even realized he'd been possessed. Carolina's guard went flying into Donut and Caboose's guard dropped to floor with small outcries of pain, but a quick vitals scan revealed that they were only stunned.

_Good, _he thought.

_Church? _Caboose had finally caught on to what had just happened.

_Hey, buddy…I need to borrow your body for a moment, okay? Don't tell Tucker. _

A pause. _Okay, Church. _

Church's mention of Tucker brought a memory of a conversation between Caboose and Tucker from their days in Blood Gulch canyon. "_Caboose, that's why I always liked you-everything falls into two categories: either you don't understand it, or you just don't care." _

"_Yeah, I don't know what you mean by that, but I guess it doesn't matter."_

_Ah, Caboose, _Church thought to himself as he forced himself to stay as far as possible from any more of Caboose's memories or interpretations of events and people.

"Nice work," Carolina complimented as she repositioned herself in front of a control console and quickly tapped in the cargo bay codes. "Donut, get in!"

"Aw, do I have to?" Donut whined while he held up the other guard. "I was just getting-"

"NOW, DONUT," Carolina and a deeper-voiced Caboose snapped in unison as the cargo bay doors slid open. "Wash, cut the power!" Seconds later, the entire hall went dark, which was promptly followed by a girlish shriek from Donut. Church couldn't see her face, but he'd wager a new body that she wore her usual annoyed expression.

Church threw Caboose between the cargo bay doors and braced them open. "Doc," Carolina barked as she grabbed the leg of Church's guard and began dragging him into the cargo bay, "Get the other one!"

Doc was facing the second guard and had begun scanning it with the glowing green tool of his while Donut tried (rather unsuccessfully) to disentangle his improvised flag-toga from the guard's armor. "But I have to check his-"

Without hesitation, Carolina dropped her guard's leg, snatched her grappling hook off her belt, and aimed it at the second guard, where it narrowly missed Doc's foot and wrapped around the guard's leg. "In-" she began curtly as the wire went taunt, "-here-" -the hook retracted and pulled the guard and entangled Donut toward her. As Donut and the guard slid across the floor, they were yanked right under the still-startled Doc, who promptly toppled over on top of Donut and the guard. - "NOW," she finished, her tone dripping with annoyance after the trio slid to a stop. She engaged the hook's release, retracted the wire, and re-aimed it at Caboose "Epsilon?"

Church turned Caboose's head towards Carolina and nodded, as Caboose's arms were beginning to shake. Church had seen his fair share of door malfunctions on the _Mother of Invention_ where doors unexpectedly slammed shut on soldiers and amputated their unarmored limbs, so the fact that Caboose had been able to hold them on this long was a testament to Caboose's strength.

_Church? How much long-"_GAH!" Caboose finished aloud as Carolina's hook closed around his upper thigh and immediately yanked him into the room. While Caboose was still in mid-pull, Church took the opportunity to jump back to Carolina's AI slot, who didn't even flinch as re-integrated himself with her suit.

"Uhhgg…" Church moaned as he projected himself onto everyone's visors and heard Caboose land on top of the Doc/Donut/guard dog pile, which caused all parties involve to utter pained grunts. "I forgot how much I hate going in there. I swear I lose IQ points each minute I'm in there"

"Wasn't it your idea to use him?" Carolina answered as she re-holstered her hook and turned to survey the cargo bay's interior.

"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in," he snapped back as the other three slowly got to their feet with assorted moans and groans.

The corners of Carolina's mouth twitched upwards as she reached her hand up to engage her radio. "We're in, Wash. Commencing Phase 2," she said as they began scanning the nearest box.

"Roger, boss," Wash crackled.

**Board's Note: Between working part-time and nursing school, I'll probably only be able update this story at least once a month, but possibly twice a month if I stay faithful to my time commitment for Tumblr user Thieving Hippo's creativity challenge. **


	3. Chapter 3: Everlasting Light

_A/N: For everyone who has reviewed, followed, or favorited this story: THANK YOU. Your comments truly do motivate me to continue working on this crazy idea of a cross-over fic! _

_"Not sure if turian heaven is the same as yours, but if this thing goes sideways and we both end up there-"_

_Meet me at the bar, _Rathnait Shepard half-opened her eyes to find herself slumped over a bar with her head in her arms and feeling like she'd spent the night challenging Wrex to ryncol shots. Wherever she was, this place clearly wasn't going for the "dimly-lit bar" atmosphere, as the bright white light forced her to close her eyes again. _So much for the afterlife being painless, _she thought sleepily as she yawned.

"Looks like you've been through hell, little graceful one," an unmistakably familiar voice chided in front of her as she heard the sound of a glass being set down beside her and the sounds of a bottle being unscrewed.

_It can't be…_Shepard's eyes shot fully open as she lifted her head a few inches and looked up to see the pale skin and dirty blonde figure of former Tenth Street Red Talitha Mcleod pouring a measure of what smelled like whiskey over ice.

"Tess?" she began as she slowly became more aware of her surroundings. She'd been correct in her initial assumption that was seated at a bar, but it wasn't the modern ones of the Citadel constructed of metal and synthetic materials: this one had been built centuries ago with polished wood and mirrored shelves behind the liquor bottles. A bright white fog that obscured anything beyond a few feet of her location. (Although come to think of it, she'd heard stories of bars like these from Finch where cigarette smoke had been about as thick.) Tess also wasn't clad in the revealing mini-skirt and midriff-revealing top that seemed to be the unwritten dress code of every other establishment that she'd had worked for; instead, she wore a soft, long-sleeved, cream-colored sweater dress.

The tanned dirty blonde with chest-length hair and green eyes smiled back at her. "Glad to know you still recognize your old guardian," Tess answered as she placed one of the glasses in Shepard's hand and leaned back against the shelf with the other, gently swirling it while Shepard took her own and wrapped both her hands around the it as a myriad of unpleasant memories surrounding Tess' final days prior to her departure to Basic-

_"__-you're getting on that flight tomorrow, Rathnait Shepard," a sunken-eyed Tess snaps from her bed. It's the most animated she's been since that specialist up at the Clinic told her that she only had weeks to live a month ago-_

A door opened and a bell jingled faintly in the distance. "I'm sorry, Tess," she said after a prolonged silence.

Tess cupped her hand under Shepard's chin and gently tilted it up so that they faced each other. "Don't be, Little One" she said as the sound of footsteps came closer to them. "After all, I've heard nothing but glowing reviews from your turian friend here-" she added with a quick jerk of her head at something just to Shepard's left.

Shepard's heart swelled at the word "turian." "Gar-" her voice rose as she swung around to face the newcomer, but her last syllable fell when saw not the familiar blue-upon-silver colony markings of Garrus, but the ornate cream-on-maroon ones of Nihlus Kryik, the turian Spectre who'd put her name forward for Spectre candidacy. "-lus," she finished weakly as Nihlus continued up to the bar with what Shepard assumed was a nod at Tess.

"Expecting someone else, dear?" Tess asked with a slight tilt of her head and a sympathetic glance as she poured another drink and slid it down the polished wood to Nihlus, who caught and downed it in one smooth motion.

"I…" Shepard stammered again as she watched Nihlus' every move, her heart aching.

"To answer his question, yes," Nihlus began without pleasantries as he turned his head and their green eyes met. "But I highly doubt you'll meet him here, Commander." His tone softened as their eyes met and he placed his hands on her shoulders. "And you know why."

For perhaps the first time since she'd arrived in this place, Shepard felt her heart stir within her and tears began to cloud her vision. She broke eye contact and looked down at her feet as a tear fell and struck her boot with a quiet _plop_. "You know, you and Garrus would have made quite the team," she said in attempt to lighten her mood.

A derisive snort from the other side of the bar. "Who did you think watched your boyfriend's six for the past three years?" Tess muttered in a barely audible voice as she dried the inside of a glass with a rag.

A raised eyebrow from the red-haired member of group. "He's been wha-AHHHH!" she screamed as pain exploded throughout her entire body and knocked her off her stool and to the floor, where she landed on her knees on the floor at Nihlus' feet. When she opened her eyes again, her arm had gone from solid to translucent, and was quickly becoming more so. _The hell?_

"Looks like her thirty minutes are up, Nihlus…" Tess' voice echoed distantly from overhead as a clock chimed.

_"__May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead." _Garrus' words to her prior to their final ground assault on the Reapers. _I should have known that'd I'd be sent to the renegade afterlife destination._

"So it would seem," Nihlus answered pensively, just as distant.

"What's…happening…to me?" Shepard gasped in horror as parts of her skin turned to charred, black flesh and burning pain wracked her body once more. Memories of dying after destroying the red capsule rushed through her mind. _No, _she thought, _it can't be possible…I died on Earth_

Nihlus dropped to his knees and held out his gloved talons, which Shepard grabbed and held as tears began to slide down her face and onto her knees.

"Please…make it stop," she gasped, breathless from the pain as she made eye contact with Nihlus once more as she forced herself to a kneeling position. The light that once surrounded her now faded to a hazy darkness.

"This will all be over soon, Commander," Nihlus' subvocals hummed soothingly as he cupped her face in one talon precisely as Garrus had done before she had surrendered him to James and the Normandy. "But you're going to have to do one thing before you go."

Tears streamed over her face as she whispered back "What?"

"_Breathe," _he answered as he touched the tips of his talons to her index and ring fingertips.

She closed her eyes, and a vision of Garrus and Joker standing side-by-side in a tropical jungle floated over her mind as she summoned the last bit of her willpower to inhale through fractured ribs. _Take care of him, Joker, _was her last thought before she felt herself being sucked from this world to the next.


End file.
